Academic/Digital Work: ICTs, Knowledge Capital, and the Question of Educational Quality

Abstract

The ideology of the information society has transformed the performance of academic duties within higher education through the permeation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) into all aspects of the university. These technologies provide a common ground upon which teaching, research, and administration fuse; but how have such arrangements affected the quality of academic work? This ideology functions through values, hierarchies, rewards and punishments, and surveillance that influence routine work. Using a critical orientation, this paper examines the transformation of the quality of the intellectual products and work processes of higher education in a North American context. It examines how the educational technology industry fosters a type of control over academic workers, inhibiting the individual laborer’s pursuit of educational quality. Grounded in Foucault’s concept of “disciplinary power” and in Freire’s notions of critical consciousness, it suggests a community-centered approach toward building knowledge capital in higher education.